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Age of Mythology is still one of my favorite games ever. What made it fun is not the real time strategy, but the custom scenario maps that people could create.

Age of Mythology is still one of my favorite games ever. What made it fun is not the real time strategy, but the custom scenario maps that people could create. This wasn't just the terrain, but the mechanics of the maps themselves. It was part "programming" as well as part design. The multiplayer servers are still online, but the certificate expired years ago. You can force AOM to connect to them with fiddler2, but you have to have an existing account. But now there is the steam re-release, and of course Voobly/GameRanger for the original release, but the steam version is full of bugs that have not been fixed in over a year.

roymurdock 11y ago
Slightly off topic but one of my best musical decisions of 2015 was to purchase the AoM soundtrack...amazing study/writing ambient music with just the right amount of nostalgia. If you still have the game CD you can find the files there. For the rest of us...Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TL16O6?ie=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_msc_swatch_0&sr= https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TL16O6?ie=UTF8&qid=&re...
gamesbrainiac 11y ago
AoM is still my favorite game of all time. Its hard to find a fault with and, and still to this day I can end up spending hours and hours on it to no end. The graphics are pretty awesome. I know there have been a lot of improvements to graphics over the years, but for me AoM's colors and graphics just seem so nice to look at. When it first came out, it probably had the best graphics of any RTS game. The campaign was phenomenal. I can't remember how many times I've finished and then re-finished the campaign. So I can't wait for the new expansion, "The Tales of the Dragon" to come out, which feature the Chinese and their deities.
drblast 11y ago
My wife and I played AOM obsessively, it's such a great game. There's a small time commitment, the AI had just the right levels of difficulty to help you work on your rts skills while still having a blast. I always felt like the Atlanteans were slightly overpowered, but other than that the balance was pretty good. The steam version is good but I kinda wish there were an update with low system requirements that fixed some of the bugs in the current version. It's the best LAN game ever.
- JoshGlazebrook 11y ago
  I think the Atlantean's and their villagers that don't require drop-sites combined with their human infantry is overpowered.
frik 11y ago
I prefer AoM too, it's IMHO the best RTS game of the AoE series. It was the first 3D game of the series, nevertheless had a very nice graphics. The AI is certainly the best of the series. And the random map generator was great too. (as well as the music, etc) AoE3 was great too (superb graphics and physics engine - very nice even today), but I wasn't so fond of the timeframe and several design decisions (8 tower limit, no random maps, the trains concept. AoE 2 has a buggy AI, it gives up way too often. It was an improvement in every respect to AoE1. AoE 1 was great for it's time. Less units than modern games, so every unit was worth more. One could create unlimited amount of towers - I played tower defence style gameplay in AoE 1 in 1997.
- Mikeb85 11y ago
  AoE 1 endgame was basically just building 50 heavy catapults and a bunch of towers. AoE 2 at least had fairly compelling multiplayer with a variety of options. Although town centre rushes were a dominant tactic in the original version...
  - frik 11y ago
    I almost exclusively play RTS in single player mode on random generated maps. And the AI is very good in AoE/AoM series (well except for the AI bugs in AoE2, in both the original as well as in the "HD" re-release). Whereas other RTS games (e.g. EmpireEarth) cheat a lot, that's not very rewarding. The developer at least tried to create an AI that doesn't cheat with resources. Playing an RTS for several hours in multiplay against friends (LAN) is fun (as long both are almost equal). Internet gameplay isn't that fun, when someone suddenly leaves the game, or just doing a common rush strategy. Nowadays some of them found their niche with League of Legends, etc. For me, AI gameplay in single player is more fun.
- Houshalter 11y ago
  BTW, if you don't like the original AI, it's quite easy to replace it with custom AI scripts made by other players. There is a whole collection of them here: http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/lister.php?category=ai http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/lister.php?category=ai
ixwt 11y ago
> This wasn't just the terrain, but the mechanics of the maps themselves. It was part "programming" as well as part design. This was what I loved about Starcraft: Brood War and Warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 is where the game DOTA came from, and pretty much spawned the entire MOBA genre. That, and these map creation utilities (including the one from AoM) was what got me into computer programming.

roymurdock 11y ago

Slightly off topic but one of my best musical decisions of 2015 was to purchase the AoM soundtrack...amazing study/writing ambient music with just the right amount of nostalgia. If you still have the game CD you can find the files there. For the rest of us...Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TL16O6?ie=UTF8&qid=&ref_=tmm_msc_swatch_0&sr= https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TL16O6?ie=UTF8&qid=&re...

gamesbrainiac 11y ago

AoM is still my favorite game of all time. Its hard to find a fault with and, and still to this day I can end up spending hours and hours on it to no end. The graphics are pretty awesome. I know there have been a lot of improvements to graphics over the years, but for me AoM's colors and graphics just seem so nice to look at. When it first came out, it probably had the best graphics of any RTS game. The campaign was phenomenal. I can't remember how many times I've finished and then re-finished the campaign. So I can't wait for the new expansion, "The Tales of the Dragon" to come out, which feature the Chinese and their deities.

drblast 11y ago

My wife and I played AOM obsessively, it's such a great game. There's a small time commitment, the AI had just the right levels of difficulty to help you work on your rts skills while still having a blast. I always felt like the Atlanteans were slightly overpowered, but other than that the balance was pretty good. The steam version is good but I kinda wish there were an update with low system requirements that fixed some of the bugs in the current version. It's the best LAN game ever.

JoshGlazebrook 11y ago
I think the Atlantean's and their villagers that don't require drop-sites combined with their human infantry is overpowered.

frik 11y ago

I prefer AoM too, it's IMHO the best RTS game of the AoE series. It was the first 3D game of the series, nevertheless had a very nice graphics. The AI is certainly the best of the series. And the random map generator was great too. (as well as the music, etc) AoE3 was great too (superb graphics and physics engine - very nice even today), but I wasn't so fond of the timeframe and several design decisions (8 tower limit, no random maps, the trains concept. AoE 2 has a buggy AI, it gives up way too often. It was an improvement in every respect to AoE1. AoE 1 was great for it's time. Less units than modern games, so every unit was worth more. One could create unlimited amount of towers - I played tower defence style gameplay in AoE 1 in 1997.

Mikeb85 11y ago
AoE 1 endgame was basically just building 50 heavy catapults and a bunch of towers. AoE 2 at least had fairly compelling multiplayer with a variety of options. Although town centre rushes were a dominant tactic in the original version...
- frik 11y ago
  I almost exclusively play RTS in single player mode on random generated maps. And the AI is very good in AoE/AoM series (well except for the AI bugs in AoE2, in both the original as well as in the "HD" re-release). Whereas other RTS games (e.g. EmpireEarth) cheat a lot, that's not very rewarding. The developer at least tried to create an AI that doesn't cheat with resources. Playing an RTS for several hours in multiplay against friends (LAN) is fun (as long both are almost equal). Internet gameplay isn't that fun, when someone suddenly leaves the game, or just doing a common rush strategy. Nowadays some of them found their niche with League of Legends, etc. For me, AI gameplay in single player is more fun.
Houshalter 11y ago
BTW, if you don't like the original AI, it's quite easy to replace it with custom AI scripts made by other players. There is a whole collection of them here: http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/lister.php?category=ai http://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/lister.php?category=ai

ixwt 11y ago

> This wasn't just the terrain, but the mechanics of the maps themselves. It was part "programming" as well as part design. This was what I loved about Starcraft: Brood War and Warcraft 3. Warcraft 3 is where the game DOTA came from, and pretty much spawned the entire MOBA genre. That, and these map creation utilities (including the one from AoM) was what got me into computer programming.